A single-arm early efficacy study: Narrative-based language intervention for children with sensorineural hearing loss

In this study, a narrative-based language intervention (NBLI) is evaluated in children with HL based on selected narrative outcome measures important for telling and retelling stories. Nine Danish children with slight to severe sensorineural HL in the age range of 4;11-8;8 years participated. The study had a single-arm early efficacy design. The NBLI consisted of four parts: (1) warm-up activity, (2) story retell-imitation task, (3) story-generation task, (4) repeated retellings. The NBLI entailed one session (50 min) a week for 6 weeks and targeted syntax and narrative story content and form. The following outcome measurements were included: Narrative Quality and Number of Different Words. Furthermore, a parental questionnaire administered three times (week 1, 3 and 6) was presented to monitor the outcome between sessions. The group of children with HL had a statistically significant gain in the test scores for Narrative Quality and Number of Different Words. This NBLI approach is interesting to investigate further in the future for a larger group of children with HL.